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Government
Key objectivesTo raise awareness of Cantonese cuisine and the culture of Guangdong province to a global audience, thereby increasing their affinity to eventually visit the region. Morning Studio was asked to produce a series of videos that told stories about Cantonese cuisine and chefs in the province who are supported by Guangdong government-sponsored programmes.
One such programme is the Cantonese cuisine chef training programme, which was launched in 2018 to promote Guangdong’s catering industry while also helping to alleviate poverty in the province. It has involved about 1,200 catering companies, and seen 12,000 people employed. The trained chefs not only find stability in the province’s job market, but they also promote local styles of cuisine and the culture of southern China across the country and the world.
DeliverablesThe Morning Studio team delivered a three-episode online content series consisting of rich and engaging mini-documentaries of three to five minutes each, accompanied by written articles. The first episode tugged at the heartstrings of the audience by telling the story of how one man pulled himself out of poverty by training to become a chef through the programme. The second episode fascinated the audience with the process of making traditional Chaoshan meatballs, and also showed how one chef was committed to passing down this culinary legacy. The final episode took the audience on a food tour of five Guangdong villages to sample their signature dishes. This video was produced for Goldthread, SCMP’s lifestyle content channel focused on Chinese culture, and featured lively animation. It was hosted on both SCMP.com and Goldthread2.com, furthering the video’s reach to a younger and otherwise separate audience segment.
The online series was amplified through bespoke creative display ads and video ads on SCMP.com; social media posts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube; and targeted eDM blasts to SCMP subscribers.
Results
As a video-driven campaign, the series accumulated 410,000 views and received 170,000 page views. Its reach on social media exceeded 1.62 million users and received enthusiastic feedback from overseas readers. The first episode, featuring the story of the Cantonese chef rising from poverty, generated a strong social media response, with the click-through rate on its Facebook post reaching an astonishing 10.15%.
